A celebration of SWANA cultures held in the Picton Town Hall last month invited in 170 people to hear, smell, taste, and experience the vibrant cultures of southwest Asia and north Africa, a vast, diverse, and yet “interculturally connected region,” as organizer Kamee Abrahamian put it.

The SWANA PEC Arts and Culture Festival, organized by Common Grounds, an ad hoc arts collective, “celebrated the arts and culture and community and food of a region and people that just don’t get celebrated and recognized enough.”

The Hall was transformed into a cozy living room with colourful rugs, a reading tent for kids, and mounds of pillows. Shoes littered the lobby — as they would at the entry to a private home — while laughter, music, dancing, and conversation animated the room.

Ms. Abrahamian spent the day handing around coffee, offering plates, and sharing stories from her childhood. “I wanted this event to feel like home — for everyone to feel welcome and immediately at ease,” she said.

County favourites Papa Ghanoush and Momma Hummus from Wellington served falafel and shawarma to the usual a long lineup. At the centre of each table were trays of sweets and fresh fruits created by PEC baker Half Kanga. The star of the show were the triple tier cakes — one an apple spice cake wrapped in deep red fondant with gold flowers along the sides, another wrapped in creamy white, both works of art.

Amidst the music, dancing, and the loving and joyful vibes, however, was “a small table, an information booth, for folks with questions about the genocide in Gaza right now,” said Ms. Abrahamian.

The table displayed posters with slogans like, “HASBARA Hebrew word for Lies & Bullshit;” “Stop the Gaza Genocide, Over 186,000 Killed;” — as of November 9, the Gaza Ministry of Health identifies 69,000 dead since October 7 — and “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free,” a chant that can be taken to be pro-Palestine, or to call for the eradication of Israel, or both.

“The bottom line,” said former Picton councillor Lenny Epstein, “is, if you know these posters and slogans are provocative and you want to be welcoming, why put them there?”

Mr. Epstein is a member of the Jewish residents’ group that organized the Good Lox Fest this fall in support of a community that feels both marginalized and targeted in the wake of the catastrophe of October 7, 2023, and its horrific aftermath, the war in Gaza.

“If we can’t live peacefully here, how can we expect it elsewhere?” he asks. “The biggest thing is to find ways to listen and understand each other’s pain and fears and then to find ways to create positive interactions.

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to be there. I can only talk about here.

“The posters were extreme, exclusionary, dismissive. In Hebrew, ‘hasbara’ means ‘public diplomacy’. To call that ‘lies and bullshit’ — there’s no space for conversation in that message.

“Propaganda plays on emotion. These posters come from Belgium; they are not the products of local artists; they are part of a global propaganda machine.  

“Celebrating a culture does not mean excluding other cultures. If the target was Israel, or Zionism, while the current Israeli government certainly doesn’t represent all Jews, the delegitimization of the connection between Jews and the land of Israel is more than troubling,” he concluded.

Ms. Abrahamian acknowledged that many of the people who find themselves recognized in SWANA culture “do not recognize Israel as a state.” Many definitions of the SWANA region exclude Israel but include Palestine. “We are pro-Palestinian,” she said, speaking of Common Grounds. “This was not an explicitly political event but that is our stance.”

“That said, nothing at this event called for harm against any kind of people, there was nothing about Jews or the Jewish people. There were many Jews in attendance.”

Some members of the local Jewish community noted that as the event was funded and promoted by the municipality via Visit the County, and held in a municipal building, greater effort needed to be made to ensure it was truly open and welcoming to all.

In a letter to the Executive Director of Visit the County, Sarah Fox, which was copied to the Gazette, resident Lawrence Mosselson noted the festival received a Community Partnership grant.

“We would like to understand what the guidelines were for applications and what due diligence was carried out by VTC prior to awarding the grants,” he wrote.

Ms. Fox responded to note the program would be reviewed with “community safety” in mind.

“As we prepare the next iteration of the Community Partnership Fund guidelines, we will be focusing on clarity, transparency, and community safety. This includes adding more detail to program eligibility, so applicants understand the types of activities and content that align with the fund’s purpose; strengthening disclosure expectations; [and] refining the review framework that guides how we assess applications.

“These refinements will be reflected in the revised guidelines and shared publicly before the next intake period. Our goal remains to support tourism experiences that contribute positively to the community while ensuring funded events align with our values and foster a welcoming environment,” she wrote. 

—With files from Gautham Krishnaraj, LJI Reporter